Folding-machine.



E. PIGNONE. FOLDING MACHINE. APPLlcATloN man luNE 8.1916.

Patented Jan. 30, 1917.

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FOLDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED IuIIE 3.19m.

Patented Jan. 30, 1917.

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FOLDIN G-MACHIN E.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 3m i917..

Application led .Tune 8, 1916. Serial No. 102,414.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known .that I, EMANUEL PIGNONE, a subject of the Kingdom of Italy,and alresident of the borough and county of Bronx, city and State of NewYork, have invented a certain new and useful Folding-Machine especiallydesigned for folding paper dresspatterns or other paper or textilearticles preparatory to inclosing them in a suitable wrapper fortransportation and presentation upon the market, of which the followingis a specification.

ln the manufacture of the articles in question much time is consumed ingathering togethei1` the various pieces constituting a complete patternor similar article and in folding them in such manner that they may bereadily inserted in their envelops orv wrappers and that none of theparts be torn or defaced, and since this work is usually done byunskilled operatives, it is a further purpose of my invention to soconstruct the machine that it shall be automatic in all its operations,so that the material being properly fed to one end of the machine willbe delivered at the other end in proper condition to be immediatelyplaced kin its envelop or other wrapper.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is 'a longitudinal elevation, partlyin section, of a-machine embodying my invention; Fig. 2 is a plan viewof the machine shown in Fig. l; Fig. 3 is an elevation, partly insection, taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction ofthe arrows; Fig. 4f is a cross sectional view, partly in elevation,taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. l and looking in the direction of thearrows; Fig. 5 is a sectional view, partly in elevation, showingindetail the construction of one of the rolling forks Fig. 6 is anelevation, partly in section, of the parts shown in Fig. 5, taken on theline 6-6 of Fig. 5 and looking in the direction of the arrow; Fig. 7 isa series of views showing the operation of the rolling forks andcompressing fingers and the relation of these parts to the underlyinghoppers, final squeezing rolls and underlying receptacles; Fig. 8 is aperspective view of a dress pattern folded so as to present one straightedge for the proper guidance of the pattern through the machine foradditional folding; Fig. 9 is a perspective view of the dress patternshown in Fig. 8, which has been additionally folded; Fig. l0 is aperspective View of the dress pattern shown in Figs. 8 and 9 after therolling or ceiling actionhas been performed by the rolling forks andbefore the final compressing; Fig. ll isa perspective viewk of the dresspattern shown in Fig. lO after the compressing action by the squeezingfingers and compressing rollers and as delivered fromthe machine readyfor insertion in its appropriate wrapper.v

In the drawings l represents a suitable frame for the support of theapparatus, 2 a mainl shaft upon which is a main driving wheel 3. Thepower, whatever itsl special form, may be conveyed to the machine bymeans of the sprocket wheel 4 and sprocket chain 5, or in any otherpreferred manner.

Mounted upon the frame l is a support, 0r table, G, which maybeneficially be made of metal and upon one side is mounted a graduallynarrowing defle'ctor or `primary folder 7, by means of bolts 8, or in'any other suitable manner. As shown, the deflector is so formed that itcontracts the fiat surface of the support or table so that at thedelivery or throatend 9 (see Fig. 2) it and also the table are of thedesired widths to effect the operations to be performed by the machine.

Upon the side of the table opposite to that upon which the deflector ismounted, is a vertically arranged guide plate attached to the upper edgeof which is what call an interior guide plate or folder l1, preferably,but not necessarily of the same width throughout, the forward end ofwhich should be of less width than that of the interior of the deflectorat the end 9. This plate-1l projects laterally between the deiector 7andthe table or support 6, and preferably has a return member l2, whichlies parallel to and a suitable distance from the table (see Fig. 4) soas to' secure smooth action in the folding operations.

Upon a series of studs` 13y (see Fig. 4) rotate a series of rollersvlll, yand beneath them (3o-acting rollers l5, which latter are driven bysprocket wheels 16 and sprocket chain 17. The wheels 16 are fast uponshafts 18 journaled on the frame 15 are supported. I prefer to cover theface of the rollers l5 with a rubber or similar yielding substance, l5,adapted to radial compression to accommodatel different thicknesses inthe material being folded and also to more positively assure the feedingthereof through the machine. The lower and upuponwhich the rollers i lid las

per res respectively of the rollers le and l5 are in substantially thesame horizontal plane as the upper surface of the table or support 6.The sprocket chain 17 is actuated by a sproeket gear 1i9 (see Fig-'1)which is driven from the main driving wheel Y 20 is a combined guide andguard pivoted at 21 to the side of the machine and having aV Cross bar22, which extends transversely of the table.

23 a cam rod pivoted to the lower end of the combined guide and guard20. lt is supported at the forward end of the machine upon a bracket 2fand is pr vided with a retractile spring Q5. Upon the end of the cam`rod 23 is a roller 26 which engages with a cam wheel 27 on the maindriving shaft 2. This cam wheel has a cut out 28, and the arrangement issuch that when the roller 28 comes in contact with the eut out, theretraetile spring 25 will draw the rod 2B backwardly and cause the bar22 of the combined guide'and guard to be kbrought down into somewhatclose Contact with the surface of the table, so as to act as a guide tothe operative when to feed the patterns'to the machine so as to prevent'the feeding of succeeding patterns so rapidly that they might ride upon one another and thus cause confusion in the work.

Upon each side of the machine are the following parts: 29 is a brokengear nounted on the main shaft 2 and adjacent to the part where the cogsare omitted there is a laterally projecting cam surface 80. pinion 3lengages with the broken gear and in turn meshes into a pinion 32, whichis splined to a sliding spindle 33, which has upon its outer end agrooved wheel 3st witl in which works a bifurcated lever 35, which ispivoted at 36 and provided with an aetuating spring 37. Upon the innerend of spindle is a fork 36 adapted to embrace the edges of the partlyfolded dress patterns as they are presented to them by -the other partsof the machine. rll`he cam surfaces B0 on the side of each broken gear29 engage against a projection or similar surface ff made on each leverlt will be noted that the construction is such that when the camsurfaces 8G engage the projections 5e of the levers, they will be forcedoutwardly, so as to release the dress pattern previously engaged by theforks and that the springs 37, after the cam surfaces 30 have passed,will again cause the levers 35 to move inwardly, carrying the forks withthem. Y

Upon the main shaft 2 there are mounted two cam wheels 38, 88, one ateach side of the machine, with each of which engages a roller 39, whichis supported upon a bar 40. The bars are pivoted at il to the main frameand at their outer ends is a weight 42. Projecting upwardly from andpivoted to the hars are vertically arranged pitlnen lf3, one on eachside of the machine, to the upper ends of which are pivoted a pair oflinks Llei, 44, which engage with cranks 45, 45, which are supportedupon shafts 46, and upon each of these shafts is what I call a squeezingplate 47. rl`he construction and arrange ment of this part of theapparatus are such that when the rollers 39 encounter the cut outportion of the cam `wheels 3S, the weights l2 will cause the pitmen 4113to move downwardly, and they in turn acting through the links #le andcranks Ll5 will cause the squeezing plates Ll? to move toward oneanother, as illustrated in Fig. 7, thus squeezing the folded dresspattern, or equivalent material. between them, compacting and smoothingit, and as soon as the rollers 39 move out from the depression in thecam wheels 38, then the pitmen will be again lifted and the squeezingplates will be again separated, releasing the folded and now squeezedpatterns, as also illustrated in Fig. 7.

Upon the main shaft 2 (see Fig. 3) there is a sprocket wheel 48, havinga sprocket chain 49, which engages another sprocket wheel 50 fast uponthe shaft of one of the rollers 5l, which are suitably journaled at thebottom of a hopper 52 in which the foldedand squeezed patterns areautomatically dropped by the machine, and as they pass through betweenthe rollers 5l, they are given a final compressing squeeze, after whichthey are dropped into the receptacle 53, from which they are removed bythe operator and placed in their appropriate wrappers or envelops.

The operation is as follows: The material to be folded, whether it be adress pattern or other article, is laid upon the table or support insuch manner that a straight, or substantially straight edge 50, see Fig.S, may be fed to the guide plate l0 at one side thereof. "hereupon, atsuch. time as the combined guard and guide is elevated, the operatorshores the material forwardly until its forward edge or edges 5l isgripped between the first pair of rollers ll and l5, by which it is thencarried forward, in so doing passing between the return member l2 of theinterior folder or guide plate ll and the upper surface of the table (S,and as it passes still farther forward, being fed by the succeedingpairs of feed rollers, the defiector 7 folds over inwardly the outeredge of the material opposite to that presented to the guide plate l()and at the end 9 of the table and defiector, these folded parts cometogether and are superposed upon one another, substantially as shown inFig. 9, so that when they pass between the most forward pair of therollers lll and l5, they receive a partial or primary squeezing action.

From these rollers the material passes still forwardly until it reachesthe rolling forks 36 and the machine is so timed that when the materialwill have attained the desired position, the forks 36 will be retractedor spread apart and immediately thereafter they will move inwardly,their position being such that the edges of the partly folded materialwill pass between the tines of the fork. Immediately thereafter, throughthe operation of the parts described, the forks simultaneously andco-eXtensively rotate, so as to roll or coil the partly folded materialupon itself into the form substantially as shown in Fig. 10. The severalpositions of the rolling forks and of the material during this operationare shown in the series of sketches constituting F ig. 7. When therolling operation has been completed, and this of course will dependupon the detail of construction of the particular machine, because theforks may be made to rotate as many or as few times as the work to beperformed requires, then through the operation of the squeezing platesand the mechanism which actuates them, they swing downwardly, firmlycompressing or squeezing the folded and rolled material between them andwhen held bv these squeezing fingers the rolling forks are withdrawn tothe right and left, so that when immediately thereafter the squeezingfingers are in turn opened, the material in substantially the form shownin Fig. 1l will drop into the underlying hopper 52 and pass between therollers at its bottom, where the material will recelve its iinalcompacting compression. From these rollers it drops into the receptacle53, or upon any other preferred delivery device from which it will betaken for convenient inclosure within its envelop or other wrapper.

It will be noted that all the operations are automatically performed bythe machine and there is no occasion for an operative, however carelessor unskilled, to put his hands or fingers anywhere within the workingparts, and so true is this that the entire machine may be covered with ametal or c loth hood, if desired. All that is necessary is to present astraight, or substantially straight edge to the machine at the feedingend as described and the guard and guide located at that end willpreclude the possibility of any accident happening to the operative sofeeding the machine.

It will be obvious to those who are familiar with such matters that themachine illustrated and described herein constitutes one form only ofmany in which my invention may be embodied. Indeed, all the devices maybe more or less, some entirely changed in detail of construction andstill their operation and consequently the invention retained. Itherefore do not limit myself to the details shown and described.

I claim:

l. In a folding machine, a horizontal support for the material, astraight guide plate projecting vertically at one side of the support, adei-lector gradually narrowing in the direction of feed of the materialoverhanging the support and located opposite the guide plate, ahorizontally disposed guide plate between the support and the deflcctorbut separated from both, a guide to determine the feed of the materialto the machine, feeding devices located in the same plane as the supportadjacent to the vertical guide plate, rolling devices beyond the feedingdevices adapted to engage the material and coil it and squeezing devicesadapted to flatten and compress the coiled material.

2. In a folding machine, a horizontal supportfor the material, astraight guide plate projecting vertically at one side of the support, adeflector gradually narrowing in the direction of feed of the materialoverhanging the support and located opposite the guide plate, ahorizontally disposed guide plate supported from the vertical guideplate and located between the support and the deilector but separatedfrom both, a guide to determine the feed of the ma.- terial to themachine, feeding devices located adjacent to the vertical guide plateonly and arranged in pairs, the meeting surfaces of which are in thesame plane as the support, rolling devices beyond the feeding devicesadapted to engage the material and coilit, and squeezing devicessuperimposed above the coilingA devices adapted to grip the coiledmaterial and flatten and compress it.

3. In a folding machine, a horizontal support for the material, astraight guide plate projecting vertically at one side of the support, adeiector gradually narrowing in the direction of feed of the materialover-hanging the support and located opposite the guide plate, ahorizontally disposed guide plate supported from the vertical guideplate and located between the support and the deflector, but separatedfrom both, a guide to determine the feed of the material to the machine,feeding devices located adjacent to the vertical guide plate only andarranged in pairs, the meeting surfaces of which are in the same planeas the support, rolling devices beyond the feeding devices adapted toengage the material and coil it, squeezing devices superimposed abovethe rolling devices adapted to grip the coiled material and flatten andcompress it, a hopper to receive the flattened and compressed material,and squeezing rollers in the bottom of the hopper.

4l. In a folding machine, a horizontal support for the material, astraight guide plate projecting vertically at one side of the support.,a deiector gradually narrowing in the direction of feed of the materialoverhanging the support and located opposite the guide plate, ahorizontally disposed guide plate between the Support and the deflectorbut separated from both, feeding devices located adjacent to thevertical guide plate only and in the same plane as the support, endWisemovable rolling devices beyond the feeding devices adapted to engage thematerial and coil it, and squeezing devices adapted to grip the coiledmaterial and hold it during the Withdrawal of the rolling devices and toHatten and compress the coiled material.

In testimony whereof have Signed my name to this specification.

EMANUEL PIGNONE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

